The Tower of the Elephant recap

In Arenjun, a young Conan hears that the sorcerer Yara keeps the priceless Elephant's Heart in an unscalable tower. He enters the grounds and joins Taurus, a celebrated thief pursuing the same prize. They evade lions and climb the tower, but a giant spider kills Taurus. Conan slays the creature and discovers that the tower's true secret is Yag-kosha, a blind, elephant-headed visitor from another world whom Yara has tortured and enslaved. Yag-kosha asks Conan to kill him and use his heart and blood to awaken the jewel's power. Conan obeys, brings the gem to Yara, and repeats the words he was taught. Yara is drawn into the jewel to face his victim's vengeance, the gem disappears, and the tower collapses as Conan escapes without treasure but having freed the captive and destroyed the sorcerer.

In a crowded tavern in Arenjun, a young Cimmerian named Conan asks about the Tower of the Elephant. A drunken Kothian tells him that the sorcerer Yara keeps a fabulous jewel called the Elephant's Heart there, behind walls and magical defenses no thief has defeated. When the man ridicules Conan as a barbarian, their quarrel turns violent and Conan kills him. The incident fixes the challenge in Conan's mind. He slips through the night toward the tower, studies its smooth walls and guarded grounds, and chooses to enter instead of accepting the city's belief that the treasure cannot be reached.

Inside the garden Conan unexpectedly meets Taurus of Nemedia, the famed Prince of Thieves, who has also come for Yara's gem. Taurus is impressed that Conan crossed the wall without elaborate equipment and suggests that they work together. He uses a strange powder to kill the lions guarding the grounds, and the two scale the tower with a rope and hook. Taurus enters an upper chamber first but dies almost at once from a venomous bite. Conan confronts the attacker, an enormous spider lurking inside the tower, and kills it after a desperate fight. Alone, he continues deeper into the building, now seeking the truth behind a robbery that has already cost the master thief his life.

Conan finds not a hoard but Yag-kosha, a blind elephant-headed being chained in a chamber. The prisoner says he came from the planet Yag in the distant past and that Yara captured, mutilated, and tortured him to steal his supernatural knowledge. Yag-kosha asks Conan to end his suffering and provides precise instructions for turning the Elephant's Heart against the sorcerer. Conan kills him, removes his heart, bathes the jewel in its blood, and takes it to Yara's room. When Conan places the gem before Yara and speaks the appointed words, the sorcerer shrinks and is drawn into the jewel, where the restored form of Yag-kosha waits for him. The gem disappears and the tower collapses. Conan races through the grounds and reaches the street alive, carrying no treasure but leaving both the captive's torment and Yara's power ended.

Yag-kosha explains that he came from another world long ago and was worshipped peacefully until Yara captured him, blinded and tortured him, and used his knowledge for sorcery. At the prisoner's request, Conan kills him, cuts out his heart, bathes the gem called the Elephant's Heart in its blood, and carries it to Yara's chamber. Conan speaks the instructed words and places the gem before the sorcerer. The jewel draws Yara inside it, where Yag-kosha takes vengeance, and then vanishes. The tower begins to collapse. Conan escapes across the gardens and into the street; when he looks back, both tower and jewel are gone, leaving Yara's domination ended and the young thief shaken by a mystery beyond ordinary treasure seeking.